she was made of sunlight
The stick looks something like a sword, long and straight and somewhat flat, one end wide and the other jagged and pointed. She can see where it broke away from the tree, and she brushes the splinters away lovingly when she picks it up and shakes away the frost.
The wood is still somewhat damp, heavy in her grasp as she raises it over her head. It makes a whistling sound as she swings it, around and around, before letting it crash down upon a rotting log. The stump splinters, moss and mushrooms caving in around the hole her attack leaves. Decay and laughter fill the air, and Maret spins away, stabbing her sword at an invisible enemy.
Through the woods she races, feinting and parrying and lunging and dodging. Her wooden weapon is a whirl of movement all around her, slashing and stabbing and knocking aside every bush and vine that dares stand in her way. And in her mind she is untouchable, unstoppable, even as her heart stutters and she trips and skins one knee. Because as soon as she falls she’s back up again, twirling through the trees, running alongside the river -
She skids to a stop, breathless, when she comes across the antlered girl. Her coat is dark, almost as dark as the shadows in the woods, but it’s blue instead of green. Maret watches her as she watches the river, and it’s not until she pockets the stone from the shores that she steps boldly forward.
“Are you stealing that?”
Her voice is lilting, too sweet to be as accusatory as it is. There’s a glimmer in the girl’s half-blue eyes, as she lifts her stick-sword up and points it at the mare. The tip of it hovers in the air, traveling in a miniature circle like it’s tracing the moon that graces the the girl’s brow.
Her lips quirk into an almost-smile.
“Delumine doesn’t take kindly to thieves, you know.” Does she notice the way her voice wavers, like the trembling of the earth before an earthquake? Her heart flutters inside of her chest, skipping one, two, three beats before settling back into rhythm. The girl hardly notices, brandishing her makeshift weapon.
@vaeri
